Supporting leg construction



March 13, 1956 L. J. HOGAN, JR 2,738,246

SUPPORTING LEG CONSTRUCTION Filed 001:. 14, 1954 INVENTOR. LAWRENCE J. HOGAN, JR.

MAW

United States PatentO 2,738,246 SUPPORTING LEG CONSTRUCTION Lawrence J. Hogan, In, Chicago, Ill.

Application October 14, 1954, Serial No. 462,178

2 Claims. (Cl. 311-114) This invention relates generally to a supporting leg construction, and more particularly to a supporting leg having novel means for rigidly securing the leg to a structure for support thereby.

In the past, detachable or so called knock-down supporting legs have been formed with a mounting flange rigidly secured in an integral manner with the leg atits upper end. In order to attach and detach such supporting legs, it has formerly been necessary. to manually secure the mounting flange portion of the leg to the structure to be supported by means of a plurality of mounting screws or bolts extending through the flange. Such practice has necessitated the expenditure of considerable working time in setting up various items of furniture after unpacking from shipping or factory containers. In the sale of television sets for example, it is desirable to pack and ship the cabinet with legs removed for convenience in packing and safety in handling. At the time of installation, it has been common practice for a technician to remove the set and cabinet from its shipping container and attach the necessary supporting legs. The time consumed in such operation becomes quite costly to the seller.

It is the intention of the present invention to provide a manually detachable leg construction of tubular form which may be readily mounted without the need for tools by means of a single screw-threaded attaching element.

It is a primary object of this invention, therefore, to provide a supporting leg construction having a body of tubular form in combination with mounting means rigidly secured thereto and permitting the leg to be detachably secured by a single manual operation to a structure to be supported.

It is another object of this invention to provide mounting means for detachably securing a supporting leg of hollow, tubular form to a structure to be supported, wherein the mounting means is rigidly carried within the side walls of the leg, thereby eliminating all outwardly extending flange elements and obstructions as integral portions of the leg.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of my supporting leg construction whereby the objects contemplated are obtained as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 of the drawing is a side elevational view of a supporting leg embodying the features of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary vertical cross-sectional view taken substantially as indicated by the line 22 on Figure 1, showing the details of construction of the mounting means and its attachment to the leg body;

Figure 3 is a top plan view taken in the direction substantially as indicated by the arrows 3-3 on Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the leg of Figure 1 prior to its attachment to the mounting flange of a structure to be supported.

Referring now to the drawing, 1 have shown an elongated leg body 10 of hollow tubular form. The leg body 10 is preferably fabricated from seamless cylindrical tubing of a suitable metal such as aluminum, steel or a zinc diameter of /6", while maintaining a straight-walled upper portion having a height of about Such dimensions are illustrative only, and merely serve to indicate the general configuration of the tubular legs with which the novel mounting means of this invention is intendedfor use.

After preparing a suitable tubular leg body having the.

desired shape and length, a mounting sub-assembly is provided for attachment to the legs. The mounting subassembly includes a cylindrical cup member 14 having acircular side wall 16 and a flat bottom wall 18. An aperture 20 extends through the center of the bottom wall 18 and is of sufiicient diameter to receive the screwthreaded shank 24 of a weld stud 22.

The weld stud 22 provides a weld head 26 having a plurality of weld-metal spots 28 applied to its under surface. The stud 22 is Welded to the bottom wall 18 of the cup member 14 in the assembled manner shown in Figure 2 of the drawing.

The cup member 14 may then be inserted within the upper open end of the leg body 10. e The outer diameter of the cup side wall 16 is about equal to the inner diameter of the legstraight-walled portion 12 to provide a contacting fit therebetween. The cup side wall 16 is resistance welded, as indicated at 30, to the leg wall 12 at a plurality of circumferentially spaced points, four being shown. As best seen in Figure 2, the top peripheral edge of the cup member 14 is positioned substantially flush with the top peripheral edge of the leg body, as indicated at 32. This relationship of parts serves to position the bottom wall 18 of the cup member substantially at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the leg body 10, while at the same time locating the stud 22 substantially co-axial with the leg axis.

'The shank 24 is of sufficient length to extend above the top edge 32, a distance of about for a leg having the dimensions set forth above by way of example. The upwardly extending portion of the shank 24 beyond the edge 32 is adapted to be received in cooperating relation within a screw-threaded opening 34 in an outwardly extending embossment 36 of a mounting plate 38. The top edge '32 will effect seating engagement with the outer surface of the embossment 36, and will serve to maintain I a clearance between the end of the stud shank 24 and the bottom surface of a frame 40 or the like which the leg,

10 serves to support. In this way, the frame 40 need not be apertured or recessed in any way to effect mounting of the leg.

In practice, the mounting plate 38 is fixedly attached to the frame 40 at the desired area of support. A plurality of screws or bolts 42 may be employed for this purpose. The supporting leg 10 may then be attached in a simple manner by manually threading the end of shank 24 into the threaded aperture 34 of the mounting plate 38.

A suitable bottom plug or surface glide 44 may be inserted in the bottom open end of the tubular body 10, as seen in Figure 1, to complete the leg construction.

It will be apparent from the present disclosure that I Patented Mar. 13, 1956,

have provided a tubularleg construction capable of being readily detachable by means of. a single stud which isrigidly carried by the leg within its side walls. I have wholly eliminated the need for a mounting flange integrally carried by' the leg' at its upper or mounting end, while at the same time solving the difficult problem of providing a simple and efiici'e'nt means for manually effectirig mounting of ahollow, tubular supporting leg.-

Gh'ange's may be made in the constructionand arrangenie'nt of the parts o'f my supporting leg construction without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my inve'ntion, and it is intention to cover by the claims any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical improvements which-may be reasonably included within I claim: I

1'. A unitary supporting leg and mounting" construction comprising an elongated leg" body roviding a point of support at; its lower endand being t'ub'ularly open at its upper end, said open upper end providing a' mounting ortion eonnsrising a straight cylindrical sidewall having substantial vert'ical hei ht in relation to transverse width, a cup member disposedentirely within said leg upper end, said cup member having a generally horizontal bottom wall and a vertically u wardly extending straight cylindrical side wall, said cup side wall having substantial vertical heightin relation to the transverse width of said bottom wall, a stud rigidly secured at its lower end to said cup bottom wall and extending vertically upwardly therefrom above the open upper end of said leg body, the outer surface of said cup side wall being in full contacting engagement with and rigidly secured to the inner side wall surface of said cylindrical side wall of the leg body, the upper end of said cup side wall terminating immediately closely adjacent the open upper end of said leg body, whereby said stud, cup, and the upper end of said leg body cooperate to provide rigid mounting means for detachably securing the leg to the bottom surface of a frame to be supported.

2. A unitary supporting leg and mounting construction according to claim 1, wherein the upper end of said cup side wall terminates substantially flush with the open upper end of said leg body.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 675,827 Shrader July 3*, 1923 11,880,133 Hassen'sall Sept. 27, 1932 2,698,775 Courtwright Ian. 4, 1955 

